Lord Warner: The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has an advisory and not a regulatory role with respect to control of chemicals to which the public may be exposed. It is the role of other government departments and agencies to enforce regulations to reduce the exposure of the population to toxic substances. These regulatory powers reside with the Health and Safety Executive for occupational safety, the Department of Trade and Industry regarding safety from consumer products used in the home etc, and the Environment Agency regarding environmental exposure from various sources. However, the advisory role of the HPA means that if it did have concerns it could influence the department/agency with the policy lead.
	There are many recognized risk factors for breast cancer. Some of the most clearly established are reproductive, and other known risk factors are age, ethnic group, family history of the disease, history of benign breast disease, socio-economic status, use of oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy; also, in postmenopausal women, obesity. In addition, the Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC) made a statement in 2004, showing that alcohol consumption can cause breast cancer (www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/coc/alco04.htm). The COC has also looked in detail on a number of occasions at the evidence to support the hypothesis that breast cancer is causally related to persistent organochlorine pesticides. They have consistently concluded that there the evidence does not support a causal association.
	The view of the Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division of the HPA is that there is no evidence to support the view that exposure to specific chemicals is a cause of breast cancer. Thus, the agency would not argue a case for any prioritization in this area.

Department of Health: Employment Tribunals

Lord Warner: The Department of Health has incurred the following costs contesting cases of unlawful discrimination in employment tribunals over the past 18 months:
	Counsels fees: £515,731.68
	Legal/Solicitor costs: £114,347.50

Lord Triesman: The Government are not aware of the use of UK territory or airspace for the purposes of "extraordinary rendition", nor has the Government received any requests, nor granted, any permissions, for the use of UK territory or airspace for such purposes. We are aware of media allegations about "extraordinary rendition" operations allegedly conducted by the US authorities, and my right honourable friend, the Foreign Secretary, has written to the US Secretary of State on behalf of EU partners.
	Under UK and international law, carriers on technical stopovers are not obliged to provide a passenger list.
	The Government's policy is not to deport or extradite any person to another state where there are substantial grounds to believe that the person will be subject to torture or where there is a real risk that the death penalty will be applied.

Lord Morris of Manchester: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What study the Department of Health has made of households receiving the lowest statutory minimum incomes below the poverty thresholds in terms of (a) levels of income; (b) the extent to which housing is affordable; and (c) levels of debt; and
	What study the Department of Health has made of (a) income levels; (b) affordability of housing; and (c) levels of debt, in households receiving the lowest statutory minimum incomes below the poverty thresholds; and whether any such study has assessed the link between these factors and ill health.

Lord Triesman: A copy of the letter from the British High Commission in Nairobi reference PPT/16/2004 has been placed in the Library of the House.
	The letter of 9 February from the Indian High Commission in Nairobi is exempt from disclosure because it is confidential information obtained from a state other than the United Kingdom or from an international organisation or international court.

Lord Adonis: Participation in the Investors in People standard is voluntary. Currently over a third of all schools in the UK are participating in and benefiting from the standard. Government actively encourages all organisations, including educational organisations, to take up the Investors in People standard.
	DfES officials are actively engaged with Investors in People UK in discussing the development of IIP UK's new five year plan. This is expected to identify the education sector as one of its main priorities.

Lord Drayson: Since the Trident nuclear deterrent became operational in 1994 and 2004–05, annual expenditure for capital and running costs, including the costs for the Atomic Weapons Establishment, has ranged between three and four percent of the annual defence budget. Comparable information on the costs of the UK's nuclear deterrent before 1994 is not available centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate effort.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Connexions Cornwall and Devon do support the Wheels to Work scheme through providing referrals for young people to the scheme.
	Funding for the voluntary sector is the responsibility of each individual Connexions Partnership and for them to judge priorities against the needs of their local area. Connexions Cornwall and Devon have taken decisions about their engagement with the voluntary sector and this has helped them to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in the number of young people not in education, employment or training during the period November 2002 to November 2004.
	Jobcentre Plus has also supported Wheels to Work schemes in Cornwall. Jobcentre Plus were able to provide substantial funding (£34,100) to the Wheels to Work scheme in West Cornwall, in its initial stages, for the financial year 2004–05. This was funded through the Transport Projects Fund, which is a national fund accessible only to action teams. To date the project has supported 130 people; 49 referrals to the project have come via Jobcentre Plus offices or European Social Fund (ESF) providers. Of these referrals, 61 have gone into employment and 17 are attending training courses at various colleges in west Cornwall.
	In Devon, Jobcentre Plus has provision under the District Manager's Discretion Fund to consider funding for local projects. Wheels to Work schemes could be considered under this fund, but Jobcentre Plus has not received any such requests for funding, either from local offices or from the Wheels to Work schemes themselves.